Some random Yahoo Messenger chat I had with a friend a few days ago:

Me: I think, in order for this country to move up, there should be a good business environment for the capitalist, that is. Make him financially healthy so that theoretically, the benefits would be felt by the people working for him (his employees) through things like a salary increase.

Her: You mean working from the top?

Me: Yup.

Her: I was thinking of working things from the bottom.

Me: You mean a legislative law about wage increase?

Her: Yup!

Me: Well, no matter how many laws you create every now and then about salary increase, if a businessman's business is dying, the law can't really do much. He'll just work his way around the law to prevent himself from giving what is due to the employees as stated by the law.
Here, I'll use a more simple illustration. Imagine a household where there's a nanny working there. Her salary as well as her perks would always depend on the financial health of the family she's working for.

Her: You mean the family needs to be rich?

Me: Yup.

Her: But what if the Daddy is greedy?

Me: Huh?

Her: I'm sorry. I just feel sorry for these poor people. I mean, I've been to squatter areas. You'd be surprised on what you'll see there. Anyway, I was thinking as well of government giving livelihood opportunities to these people.

Me: Small-time businesses?

Her: Yeah!

Me: Well, that's like fu-king off Henry Sy a bit (owner of SM Malls) just to give these people a fighting chance. Kinda like what some countries are doing to Bill Gates.

Her: Yup!

Me: Well, I'm a consumer rights advocate. I always go for the best provider, which is usually the tycoon. I don't care if that tycoon is a Filipino or not, as long as I get the best products or services. Anyway, if you give these people a fighting chance, are you sure that they would be aggressive enough to fight back, or will these people just be satisfied with a small business, let's say, a sari-sari store for example? Can they give a better product or service to the people or will the best product and service still belong to the tycoon, which we'll be fu-king off?

__________________

I was thinking that maybe if you eradicate entirely the communist rebels in the country, that will not really remove the problem of communism/socialism ideologies in the country. Why? Well, I think in some ways, a lot of us think like the communists do, we may just not be aware of it.

For example:
1. We have an inherent hate for a business tycoon, even more so if he's a foreigner -- which is aggravated by years of watching soap operas in TFC (i.e., the struggle between the poor and the rich (proletariat versus bourgeoisie)) . LOL!

2. An expectation for the government to be the ultimate provider, even if the business sector can do the job better (This made me think of single-party states where it acts as the ultimate mother-figure in a country as a consequence of controlling the rise of business enterprising individuals) .

3. An apparent hate for privatization of some previously government owned institutions (or maybe Philippine media is just blowing this issue up, creating the impression that privatization = increased cost of that institutions products and services). Anyway, MWSS (Nawasa) has long been privatized and I'm still paying barely 300 pesos a month on my water consumption.

__________________

Anyway, me and my barkadas, most of them are working abroad before had a coffee table discussion about this and I found out that.

1. In Singapore, bureaucrats are ridiculously rich (it's in the law). The premise is, the bureaucrat will be less tempted to cheat since he's already rich by being in that position. Makes sense to me. The catch is, he'll suffer serious consequences if he's ever caught doing corrupt things. Whereas in the Philippines, I think senators (on paper) don't even earn above 50,000 pesos a month.

Heck, even in the military, their soldiers are pampered. They get Apache choppers for Christ's sake. I don't know why the hell would Singapore need an Apache, but......it's still cool though.

2. In some countries, there's a huge tax deductions for foreign investors. It's basically their way of letting them in and invest in their country. In the Philippines, a professional may have as much as 20% tax cut, and the capitalist will have something as high as a 30% tax cut, hence the urge to evade taxes is high). And the poor will have........uhm........well, they don't really contribute that much to the economy at all. LOL! They always get freebies one way or another. God knows how high the tax rate that the Philippine government will leech off from the foreigners.

______________

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?

So the PHilippines is not capitalist? NOOOOO!!!!!

Well, it is, but in reality, most countries are somewhere in between (e.g., mixed socialist and capitalist).

Heck, even China is not communist. Well, China just wants to declare itself as such. LOL!

But I do think that the US is the number 1 country in terms of capitalism advocacy.

Then the US needs to stop protecting its markets.

eh marami na namang kapitalista sa pinas eh....
pero
more capitalists, the poorer the already poor people become... and more oppressed

Uhm....we only have 3 Billionaires -- Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, and the Ayalas.

And when it comes to foreign investors, Philippines isn't really one of the most hospitable countries.

capitalism with nationalism is good. US capitalism is a bad example. Because of capitalism, US had become a government for corporation no longer a government for Americans.





our 60/40 is repellent to ward off evil. Philippines needs capitalists who have allegiance to the Philippine constitution.

The Philippines is currently under capitalism and look at the people now. If I'd be president, I'd go for democratic socialism.

I don't think the Philippines will work under socialism because it lacks this one element that's crucial in making socialism work -- humanism. America has it. Europe definitely has it. China...uhm...I don't know. The Philippines...uhmm...don't make me laugh about it. LOL!

Humanism, in my understanding of it, is human empowerment through liberation, especially from religious constraints (or any moral or societal constraints). To make it work, the environment should be open for dynamism and diversity.

The way I see it, communism versus capitalism is a battle between the state and the tycoons (since ideal communism is not yet attainable, we have a transition phase called socialism, in which the state calls the shots).

In my 25 years of existence in the Philippines, I haven't tangibly felt any form of government service that beats its privatized counterparts (putting aside the cost of services and products).

Like, I was waiting for a telephone line from PLDT all my life, and I never got it. Even if you personally applied for it, they'll just take you for granted. Then, Bayan Tel came along one day and it's even their customer representative who knocked at our doorstep and persuaded us to subscribe to them. Now, that can only be done by a company with a humanist corporate structure. In modern terminology, that's what you call customer support and customer care.

Sad to say, Philippine culture tends to view some humanist endeavors as luxury. I don't know, but I guess we share this mentality with our East Asian counterparts. No wonder China is getting criticized for its human rights violations.

To our culture, it's more about deal-with-it, get-it-over-with, and just-do-it.

I don't think being a slave to the state is a much more bearable condition than being a slave to a tycoon. :p

NO capitalism is dead!

^Idiot. If not for capitalism, you'd starve like North Koreans and never have been able to use the computer that was invented under capitalism

And notice how communist nations always have Democratic and/or People in their official names.

Why It's a Good Thing Communism is Dead

A political activist named Dave was just arriving in Hell and was told he had a choice to make. He could go to Capitalist Hell or to Communist Hell.

Naturally, Dave wanted to compare the two, so he wandered over to Capitalist Hell. There outside the door was Rockefeller, looking bored. "What's it like in there?", asked Dave. "Well," he replied, "in Capitalist Hell, they flay you alive, boil you in oil, chain you to a rock and let a vulture tear your liver out, and cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."

"That's terrible!!", gasped Dave. "I'm going to check out Communist Hell!" He went over to Communist Hell, where he discovered a huge line of people waiting to get in. The line circled around the lobby seven times before receding off into the horizon. Dave pushed his way through to the head of the line, where he found Karl Marx busily signing people in. Dave asked Karl what Communist Hell was like.

"In Communist Hell," said Marx impatiently, "they flay you alive, boil you in oil, chain you to a rock and let vultures tear out your liver, and cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."

"But ... but that's the same as Capitalist Hell!", protested Dave.

"True," sighed Marx, "but sometimes we don't have oil, sometimes we don't have knives ... "
-----------------------------------------------------------

A North Korean citizen is walking on the streets, cursing Kim Il Sung's regime and the poverty that ravages the nation...

North Korean citizen: "We have no food, we have no warm water, we have nothing!"

Of course, as it happens in North Korea, a group of policemen quickly arrest him and bring him into and interrogation room. They beat him up, they make him sit on a chair and fire with fake bullets towards him just to scare him with the noise.

After he's terrified enough, they let him go, thinking that he is too scared to do it again...

After leaving, the guy starts talking by himself again, as he's walking home..

North Korean citizen: "We have no bullets, we have nothing!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the povery in communist Romania, in a school a kid is asked by the teacher: "What is 300 meters long, 10 meters wide and eats vegetable"? The kid rapidly replies: "The salami queue in front of the supermarket!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Russian peasant visits the Lenin mausoleum near the Kremlin, in Moscow.

Without buying a ticket, he goes to a guard and whispers to him.

Russian peasant: "Pssst! 'ay, komrade, I wanna talk to Lenin!"

Russian guard: "He's dead, he's laying in his coffin in the mausoleum!"

The next day, the peasant comes back and asks the same thing again...

Russian peasant: "Pssst! 'ay, komrade, I wanna talk to Lenin!"

The guard gets angry and shouts to the peasant.

Russian guard: "Lenin is dead! He can't hear ya nor talk to ya, so go home, komrade!"

The peasant goes home, but comes back the next morning and asks again. Then the guard gets mad and violently shouts at him.

Russian guard: "I told ya, Lenin is dead! Whooat the hell is wrong wit' ya, komrade? Whooay do you keep repeatin' this krap?"

Russian peasant: "'Cause it's soo good to hear that he's finally dead!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Gagarin is launched into space. Before leaving from home, he leaves a not to his wife: "Dear Natasha! I'm going to outer space, I'll be up in the sky, will be back on Monday"

Gagarin comes back and he's shocked to find a note from his wife: "Dear Yuri! I'm at the shop, waiting in the bread line. I have no idea when I will come home"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

In Romania, a worker goes home and finds his wife in bed with the neighbour, Popescu. The tired worker goes mad and starts shouting at his wife: "Piranda, are you nuts? What are you doing with Popescu in bed?". The wife jumps out naked and violently shouts: "What the hell do you want me to serve him with, hah? We got no beer, there's no coffee in shops, there's nothing!..."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Two North-Koreans are arguing about whether it is or it isn't worth to immigrate to the United States.

One of them says: "I've heard that in the US, 2 street dogs have eaten a guy!"

The other one: "So, let's go then!!! Yesterday in Pyongyang I saw 2 guys sharing only 1 dog!"